Can tubes ever be as quiet Solid State

Equivalent input noise is several orders of magnitude higher with tubes. There is really no way to get around this. Semiconductors come in all sorts - so you can design circuits specifically for low noise depending on gain/impedance requirements etc.

I don't think it is a big issue Manley make great tube amps that are extremely quite - so do others.

its been my experience that mcintosh is extremely quiet...and extremely reliable

I recently purchased a tube DAC linestage the stock tubes gave a good soundstage and detail. I replaced them with bugleboys and there was a big improvement. I then replaced those with 1950 vintage tubes and the soundstage then became enormous and the dynamics induced anxiety. I have a Accuphase C200 SS preamp that I am going to put back in the loop. As I remember the noise floor was extremely low and it will be intersting to AB the two.

Using a VAC 70/70 MKII which I find gives a totally black background and recently retubed with Sophia carbon plates. The super low noise floor shows defects in related equipment easily. If the Accuphase is as I remember and the upgrade (being done now) improves the noise floor the resulting combination should produce a stunning synergy.

My VAC is as good as it gets but on the pre amp side if the SS is better I would jump for joy as the quality of the smaller tubes produced now does not come close to older NOS tubes. A headache that I can do without.